Cake ball bouquets

I have been consumed the past few days planning my oldest sister's 50th birthday party.

I sent my sister a list of ideas several months ago of things we could do to celebrate her birthday. She wrote back with a long list of activities that she enjoys. I was intrigued that one of the things on the list was "watching butterflies hatch." I guess she had gone to a nature preserve that had lots of butterflies on display.

So, I decided we would go with a butterfly theme for her birthday party. That sounded much better to me than the typical "over the hill" theme.

I made three different types of cake balls for the birthday cake and decorated them to look like spring flowers. I put them in flower pots and put a bouquet of cake ball flowers on each table as the centerpiece. It was a lot of fun!

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We are so happy for some warmer weather!

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Shoe lover

Our little baby loves shoes. I sorted through a box of hand-me-down clothes and put a pile of "new" shoes in the closet. When she found them, she brought them out and held them up to her foot, begging in her non-verbal way to put them on. They were large enough they fit right over the top of her sleeper.

Isn't that a great look?!

Field trip to the fire house

Today we went on a field trip with our home-school co-op to the fire department. We had a great time, and of course, the kids loved getting inside the big firetruck.

We got to see what a firefighter looks like before...

and after he puts on all of his gear.

After our tour, we all visited our new library, which opened a few weeks ago. This place is AMAZING! It has a large area where the kids can play board games. We had a ton of fun hanging out at the library!

Playdate

Alayna got to have a playdate today while her brothers went to a birthday party. We just love this little girl who is full of so much joy and energy. We also figured out that Alayna and her friend were born only two days apart!

Our gymnast

Most days, Alayna can be found wearing her gymnastics outfit under her clothes. This makes it easy to jump into gymnastics mode without much effort. She has been working on this trick the past few days.

She is getting really good!

A new game

This week, Andrew designed a new board game. I've mentioned here several times how much the kids love Sonic. Well, he made up his own Sonic board game. When I came downstairs around 7 a.m., the kids had already been playing it for awhile.

"It's just like Clue," Andrew explained. "No, actually. It's more like Monopoly."

That should give you a good idea of how to play, right?

Glass symphony

Today we were reading in history about the great composers. The author of the history book asked if readers had ever made their own musical instruments, such as "musical glasses."

"What are musical glasses?!" the kids wanted to know. So, we got out the glasses we never use and I showed them how to make music by rubbing the rims. They thought it was great fun, and throughout the day, they would go back in the kitchen to work on their symphony.

It's funny the things you forget about when you usually drink out of plastic cups. ;0

Well, hello!

Sure signs that spring is on its way!

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Check!

The boys have been spending lots of hours doing this lately:

I have to say that this is a sight I absolutely love to see. Instead of asking to watch TV or begging to play the Wii, they run inside and start up a new game of chess. I'm not even sure if they really know all of the rules. They taught themselves to play using a sheet we printed from the Internet.

Signs of spring

School outside

It was so warm today, we absolutely HAD to do some of our school work outside! We loved feeling the sun on our faces as we read Bible, History and Science.

We also discovered a family of moles digging their way through our yard. It was quite alarming — and distracting — to see the ground move as the rodents dug tunnels nearby. I did NOT get a photo! I think I was too busy screaming!

Ahhhh, spring!

The time changed on Sunday, and it is finally starting to feel like spring! We could not be happier! All of the kids have loved hanging out on the patio drawing with chalk, but especially this little one who is enjoying this artform for the first time!

Soup's on!

This is what I've been doing the past few weeks. I am the coordinator for the women's group at our church. Today, we had our second annual "Souper Saturday." This is a great evening where all of the women bring soup, salad, bread or dessert and we hear from a couple of speakers who talk about what God has done in their lives. 

It turns out to be a ton of work, but I truly enjoy it.

This year, we gave each of the women a journal to record her blessings throughout the year. Of course, this meant I needed to do lots of shopping to find cute journals that were affordable enough to purchase for 50 women: 

I made these little labels with our theme verse...

There was lots to do in terms of set-up and deocrating...

A friend helped me compile recipe cards of the different types of soup we served...

We made these jars of beans and pasta for each table...

These are the soup cans I made last year with the fake soup labels. I still had most of them, so I only had to make a few more...

We had a TON of soup!

And a great time hanging out with the ladies...

No. 1, the director

Finally, we're to Child No. 1.

This kid can't stop thinking about movies. Nearly every day, he tells me about the plot of a new movie he wants to make. He is constantly trying to recruit his siblings and neighbors to play roles in the movies in his mind. 

Often the movies don't make it to the production stage because we are just too busy to film them. But this week, he got out the video camera and recorded his movie. He also loves editing video in iMovie, and he has gotten really good at adding special effects and music.

I can't wait to see what this kid becomes when he gets older.

No. 2, the tycoon

So, back to the cast of characters around our humble abode...

Child No. 2 loves money. He loves earning money, counting money and spending money. We don't give the kids allowance and we haven't been paying them for their chores. Matthew asked me how he could earn $10, so I had to think of the one thing for which I would be willing to pay: LAUNDRY!

For the past few days, he has been folding and putting away laundry as fast as I can wash it. This arrangement is working out great for both of us!

Watching the race

I've mentioned here several times that I am teaching an Iditarod class at our home school co-op. Well, the race finally began! The boys are each following two mushers: a veteran and a rookie in the 1,150 mile dog-sled race across Alaska. 

They have tracking sheets to write down the stats of their mushers, and they check the computer throughout the day to see how the race is going. This has been an unusual sport to "watch." It's not televised, so we don't really ever see the actual race. It has been fun to see the kids gets excited about the race, even though they don't ever get to see any action.